


watcher of the eternal flame

by RerumTechnologies



Series: When Avengers Adopt [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers Family, Avengers in medical, Bentley Bailey - Freeform, Brotp, Domestic Avengers, Implied Tony Stark/Steve Rogers - Freeform, Minor Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, and then suddenly, avengers adopt, friendly avengers, i had everything to do with this, no OC/avenger, oc grew a backstory, you don't know her
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-09
Updated: 2016-07-09
Packaged: 2018-07-22 10:33:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7433097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RerumTechnologies/pseuds/RerumTechnologies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There’s only one person in Medical the Avengers will see. She’s the only one who'll deal with them too. If any other doctor or nurse is on duty they immediately call her because no one wants to deal with an injured Avenger. Most of the Junior Agents think that she’s a witch and she enchants them while they’re in Medical, Sleeping Beauty style, so they won't kill her while she treats them. Others say that she’s Tony Stark’s illegitimate kid (she’s not, they checked) and the only reason she can get them to behave is because Pepper said so. The Avengers can easily say has earned the title of friend and always gets invited to Tony’s Christmas and birthday parties.  She’s says she’s twenty-seven, but there are bets on how old she actually is because she doesn’t look old enough to drink. Her name is Dr. Bailey. Clint met her first.</p>
<p>A strange idea for an OC was floating around my head and suddenly made friends with the Avengers. Don't ask me why.</p>
            </blockquote>





	watcher of the eternal flame

There’s only one person in Medical the Avengers will see. She’s the only one who’ll deal with them too. If any other doctor or nurse is on duty, they immediately call her because no one wants to deal with an injured Avenger. Most of the Junior Agents think that she’s a witch and she enchants them while they’re in Medical, Sleeping Beauty style, so they won't kill her while she treats them. Others say that she’s Tony Stark’s illegitimate kid (she’s not, they checked) and the only reason she can get them to behave is because Pepper said so. The Avengers can easily say she has earned the title of friend and she always gets invited to Tony’s Christmas and birthday parties.  She’s says she’s twenty-seven, but there are bets on how old she actually is because she doesn’t look old enough to drink. Her name is Dr. Bailey. Clint met her first.

}{

“Dr. Bailey, Code Black.” Clint isn’t really paying attention to the call because there are nurses and doctors flocking around him, telling him to sit still and to sit back down and ‘that is not a projectile,’ and ‘Agent Barton, please, don’t injure the Junior Agents,’. He’s telling them to go screw themselves and move out of his way or he’ll injure more than the Junior Agents. So, really, it’s justified that he doesn’t notice when the tiny brown haired _child_ wanders in. Of course, being an Avenger, not to mention a pretty damn good agent, he should have noticed her even if he’s under fire and bleeding out.

Which says something about his state of mind in that moment.

“What’s a Code Black?” She asks, standing just outside the chaos that is the previously mentioned nurses and doctors.

“Avenger, ma’am.” She makes an ‘ah’ face. “Patient is suffering multiple lacerations on his arms face and chest, a broken leg, ingestion of an unknown gas as well as bruising – pretty much everywhere.” One of the male nurses answers her, earning himself a jab to the kidney that Clint swears would have hit its mark if the world hadn’t chosen that moment to swoop.

“Why are you fighting with him? This seems a little counterproductive.”

“He’s refusing treatment.” This comes from a doctor on Clint’s other side. He gives her a death glare, still recovering from the visual assault while also fighting off the hands trying to hold him down. He isn’t sure if those lunges hit their marks either. He ignores the rest of the conversation because now they’re bringing up the restraints. Fuck that.

“Aren’t the Avenger’s fighting that skunk thing in the middle of Central Park?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“They back yet?”

“On their way back, ma’am.”

“Have you told him that?”

“No ma’am, we’re trying to treat–”

“Well, no wonder he’s fighting you guys. Everyone, take a step back.”

Because they’re SHIELD, they follow the order without hesitation. Hawkeye slumps for a moment. Just for a moment, then he’ll get to the vents. His leg might slow him down, but he’s dealt with worse.

The swooping thing might be an issue.

“Agent Barton?” Someone calls him and he maneuvers his neck so he’s facing the brunette kid again. Her hair is the same color as Bruce’s, worn long and up in a ponytail with baby fuzz surrounding her pale face that’s sprinkled thickly with freckles, and holding two unremarkable hazel eyes. She’s kinda cute, in that way that pre-adolescents are sometimes. The kind of cute that makes you want to poke ‘em because you know all that pre-adolescent rage is going to be adorable too. She smiles, “Hi, I’m Dr. Bailey. I’m new.”

“Obviously,” She smiled. There’s a rule somewhere that says SHIELD Medical officials can’t smile. Clint is 90% sure. There’s another one that says they have to train to take down Nick Fury in case he refuses treatment. He’s only 85% sure about that one.

Bailey laughs sheepishly, “Yeah, I know I’m a little green. Anyway, I wanted to let you know the Avengers took care of that skunk thing and are on their way back now.” The news makes Hawkeye pause in his preparation calculations to make a jump for the vent grate ten feet up the wall. “So, if you don’t want Agent Romanoff seeing you still bloody and broken and still fighting the medics you should probably let me treat you okay?”

Clint imagines Natasha’s face if she comes back from the battle and he’s refusing medical assistance _again_. He nods.

Her smile brightens if that’s at all possible. This kid could give Steve a run for his money she’s so damn pleased to help him. “Awesome, thanks.” She turns to the team of nurses and doctors who are still standing around blank faced. “Hey Anderson? Could you go get me some sutures and Ames, get started on his leg please?” A woman and a man both nod, heading off to get supplies. Bailey sits down next to his arm where the worst of the cuts and gashes are located and just starts talking, pulling out gauze and ointments and scissors. “My little brother’s a huge fan by the way. He’s deaf – meningitis when he was three – so I told him you had hearing aids.” She pauses and stares into space, “Which now that I’m thinking about it, I probably shouldn’t have told him. I’m not really sure how classified that is. Oh, crap. And I probably shouldn’t have told you that I told him. Please don’t get me fired. He knows not to tell anyone because that could get me and you in trouble. He turned eight last month. He looks like a baby Clark Kent; super adorable. He actually looks a lot like his mom – she’s my dad’s fourth wife and, like, two years older than I am. Can you say ‘ick’? But I guess she’s good for something, given the previously mentioned Superman genes.” Clint doesn’t really know what to say but Bailey, like Tony, doesn’t seem to need another person to carry the conversation. “His name’s Dylan. He tried archery for a whole summer after I told him about you. Nearly took out his mom’s eye. Best summer ever.” On and on she goes. Clint probably learns more about her in the five hours he’s under her ministrations than he does about that human trafficking ring in Guatemala (the last month long recon mission he’d been on). It turns out his leg has a hairline fracture – which _he_ could have told them. He gets a cast and ordered off field missions for a few weeks. When he pouts Bailey pouts back. “Sorry, but that’s the shortest I can make it. You’ll need to be careful for a few weeks after that.” They run a lot of tests on him because of the gas he got hit with. Natasha comes in as Bailey is discharging him, batting away the last male doctor who demands that standard protocol is to keep him overnight.

“But he’s fine! Anderson, back off! Seriously, the only thing wrong with him now is his melatonin levels, and we already determined that would right itself in the next twenty-four hours. Go away. No, seriously, if you don’t go away I’m going to throw out all of the coffee. That’s what I thought.”

Clint is giggling like a maniac because he’s on the best drugs SHIELD has to offer. Originally, he gave Bailey the eye when she suggested medication and she rolled her eyes, “I mean you can be the super macho Secret Agent and needlessly deal with the pain for three weeks or you could just take the damn drugs which will make you heal faster and easier.” Plus, she gave him crutches. Because she’s new. And she hasn’t learned about Protocol H8.

Clint really likes her.

He probably says this out loud because Nat’s lips twitch and she turns to assess Bailey. Bailey is tapping away at the tablet and says, without looking up, “Okay, you’re good to go Agent Barton. Sorry, for keeping you. If you’ll put your thumb here – oh. Hi, Agent Romanoff, I didn’t see you. Are you here for Agent Barton or do you need to be checked out?”

Nat’s eyes flick to Clint and back to Bailey, “I’m fine. He’s done?” There might be a note of surprise in her voice, which is insulting on a multitude of levels. She pins him with a droll stare, and oops. He said that last part out loud too. “Your current record for getting out of Medical completely treated is twenty-two hours. And that was because you were unconscious,” He huffs and starts out of Medical. The crutches are going to be thrown away as soon as he’s back at the tower and Tony sees them but he can have some fun with the Junior Agents in the hall in the meantime.

Natasha comes to find him ten minutes into his game of Nab the Junior Agent. She’s looking a lot calmer than a high, broken, and beaten Clint usually warrants. She doesn’t speak but when their eyes meet Clint knows Dr. Bailey won’t be getting fired for anything anytime soon.

There are two people in the world that can usually treat an injured Clint without sustaining injuries of their own. And one of them is dead.

}{

The next Avengers to meet Bailey are Tony and Steve.

Steve drags Tony in – or, more accurately, carries him – kicking and screaming. Tony’s got a deep gash on his forehead that’s leaking blood down his face like a waterfall. There’s not an inch of skin below the cut that’s isn’t dyed a dark rusty red. Immediately upon seeing them, the nurse at the front door reaches for the comm.

“Dr. Bailey, Code Black.”

A small dark haired girl exits an office near the back. “Again? I thought Agent Barton’s checkup was tomorrow? Oh, jeez.” She’s half way toward them and reaches to pull her hair up and away from her face, making an aggravated noise when all her hair is in her hand. “Vasques will you give me a hairband from the top drawer. Thanks.” She accepts the band and finishes putting up her hair, while Steve forcefully sets Tony down on one of the cots.

“Who’s that?” Tony slurs, eyeing Dr. Bailey, “She a doctor? She can’t be. She’s, what, twelve? How old are you? This is why we don’t come to SHIELD Medical, Steve. They’re starting the children soldier program, but with doctors.” Steve rolls his eyes.

“He’s lost a lot of blood. One of Doom’s bots tore off his faceplate.”

“Oh, that’s got to suck.” She smiles at Tony, “Hi, Dr. Stark. I’m Dr. Bailey, I’m twenty-seven and I graduated top of my class at Johns Hopkins and then spent four years at the Massachusetts General Hospital before SHIELD picked me up. Last month. I’m new.”

“She called me ‘doctor’. I want to keep her, Steve. Call Pepper.” Tony’s eyes droop and Steve looks that much more panicked.

“Don’t worry, Captain Rogers, I got this.” Bailey gets to work on Tony, offering Steve a smile. And then she’s talking to Tony. A lot. “Dr. Stark, I know you’re pretty out of it but I wanted to take this chance to let you know you’re hearing aids are totally awesome. You probably didn’t get it but my brother sent this cute thank you card to your R&D lab. It was red and gold even though it had Hawkeye on it. Sorry, about that, Hawkeye is his favorite. If it helps, you’re his mother’s favorite. Actually, sorry, I think Captain Rogers is her favorite.”

Tony shocks Steve by responding, “I’ll fight her.” Bailey laughs.

“I’d love to see that. She’d deserve it. She doesn’t deserve him at all. She’s awful. If you ever meet my brother, don’t tell him I said that.” Steve sits on Tony’s other side while they talk and talk and talk.

Steve learns that Bailey’s favorite food is mashed potatoes and steak but if you ask her brother its PB&J. One time she had steak and potatoes six times in one month, purely by accident. Bailey’s favorite music is the Beatles because her dad used to make her listen to them all the time when they were traveling. He learns that Bailey likes tea instead of coffee and likes to bring her own because the SHIELD Keurig “turns people into the Borg I swear to God. Seriously, tell me if any of these nurses have ever smiled at you and also they’re freakishly strong.” Bailey always has to pull her hair back but doesn’t like having hair bands on her wrists so she leaves them on her desk but keeps forgetting them when a patient comes in so she gets another one from the drawer at the front because her desk is too far. He learns that she still hasn’t figured out who keeps stealing all of her hair bands off her desk. “Who needs that many hairbands?” She also hasn’t figured out who keeps restocking the hair band drawer. “They deserve a couple dozen baked goods.”

She discharges Tony in less than an hour, “Have a good rest of the day Dr. Stark.”

“You’ve touched my blood and healed my wounds, call me Tony.” She laughs and waves them out. As they’re walking back to the Quinjet Tony speaks again, “I want to steal her for the Tower. She’s the perfect combination of adorable niece and friendly barista. Actually if she was a barista I think I would adopt her. Hundred bucks says she’s actually eighteen, there’s no way she’s twenty-seven. And can you believe her brother likes Clint better than me? That’s going to change. JARVIS?” He asks, as they board, “Search for a deaf boy, possible last name of Bailey. Likes Hawkeye more than Iron Man. Young mother. Looks like Clark Kent. He’s eight.”

Steve grins and lets Tony ramble, but silently agrees that Dr. Bailey is a wonderful girl, even if she’s obviously lying about her age.

}{

Thor and Bruce, never needing Medical, meet Dr. Bailey the first time she’s transported to the scene of a battle for cleanup.

“Agent Barton! Dr. Stark!” Both men turn at the sound of a bright voice amongst the devastation. There aren’t any casualties but it’d been one hell of a fight. Fucking AIM. Bailey is trotting toward them carrying a medcase at least half her size and maybe weighing just as much as she does. “Hi again. I’m here to check you guys out so you don’t have to go anywhere but home after you debrief. Mind if I start with you Agent Barton?” She smiles hopefully and Clint sighs.

“Let’s get it over with.” She sets the case down and opens it up. As per usual she talks while she’s looking them over. Dylan’s learning the piano.

“He’s horrible at it. I almost don’t want to visit him on Friday cause the last time I was there Twinkle Twinkle Little Star was being murdered.” Clint huffs a laugh.

Tony winces as Bailey wipes antiseptic over a cut on his lip. “You should get him into guitar. Or drums. You can’t mess up drums. Introduce him to AC/DC. I’ll kidnap him for a concert. That way I can fix his Hawkeye is better than Iron Man problem too.”

“I don’t even want to think about another instrument at this point. It’s painful enough.” She closes her case, “Can you direct me to Captain Rogers and Agent Romanoff?”

Clint jerks a thumb towards a corner, behind them, “In front of the Wells Fargo.”

“Thanks!” She jogs off.

Clint watches her disappear, “Do you think maybe she’s possessed?”

“Possessed people are usually threatening creepy not happy creepy. Maybe she drank the Keurig?”

“Nah, she’s got her own tea, and she was suspicious of it from the start.”

“Mind control?”

“Possible, but people under mind control don’t usually have much of a personality. I’m thinking drugs.”

“JARVIS can you get a scan on Bailey? See if she’s on anything?”

Clint hears the AI answer, because the faceplate is still up, “Sir, might I point out, that is a serious breach of privacy.”

“Privacy-schmivacy she’s in SHIELD, she should get used to it.”

Steve and Thor are standing right where Clint said they were. They’re watching Natasha calm the Hulk a block down.

“Wow.” They turn to find Bailey staring at Natasha and the rapidly shrinking Hulk. Her mouth is open. “That is the niftiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Niftiest?” Steve asks, smirking.

Bailey blushes. “Sorry, my dad uses a lot of terms like that. Nifty. Groovy. Dolly. He’s weird, sorry.” She clears her throat. “I’m here to check you guys out?” She eyes them both. “Mostly just Agent Romanoff but if you guys want me to take a look at any cuts or something?”

Steve waves her offer away, “Not necessary. Agent Romanoff will be over in a moment.”

Thor looks Bailey over, “You are a Healer?”

Bailey blinks up at him. “Yes? I’m Dr. Bailey.”

“You look younger than Lady Darcy.” His eyebrows go up and his smile grows, “Are you a genius like Friend Anthony?”

“No, I’m not a genius. I just look young.” Bailey rubs the back of her neck. “I’m twenty-seven.”

That’s when Natasha and Bruce arrive. Bailey looks at any bruises or cuts Natasha has, talking the whole time about her brother and what he’s gotten up to in the past two months. “He’ll be so glad I met you, Dr. Banner. You’re his second favorite after Agent Barton. His favorite subject is science. Biology is his favorite topic; he’s got a whole fake skeleton in his room. Apparently he’s going to learn all of the bones.” Bruce is smiling and she’s laughing as she’s packing up. “He hit his mom over the head with the hand he disconnected from it because he was carrying it around muttering about the carpals and metacarpals.” She stands, “Anyway, you guys are all set to go debrief and then go home, good job today.” She trots off through the rubble.

Bruce turns to Natasha, “She’s the one that treated Clint?” She nods, staring after the brown head bobbing as it reaches one of the helicopters. His brow furrows, “She’s not twenty-seven.”

“Tony bet a hundred on eighteen.” Steve says, staring after her.

“Sixteen. SHIELD isn’t above recruiting minors.” Natasha says, smirking.

Bruce frowns disapprovingly, “I’d hope she’s at least eighteen. I’d say twenty.”

“She has a kind soul. And her brother sounds like a warrior in the making.” Thor booms, pauses, then continues. “I agree with Anthony. She cannot be older than eighteen years.”

“We’ll just have to see about that.” Tony says over the comms.

}{

Over the months, the Avengers see Dr. Bailey in Medical five times. The first two times it’s Clint again, then it’s Natasha, then Tony twice.

At one point she comes in ranting about all the hairbands being gone from her desk. The ranting quickly turns into praise to whoever restocked the drawer at the check in terminal. “Bless the mysterious hair band fairy,” She says, whipping one out and pulling her hair up. “Honestly, if I ever find out who’s doing it I’ll pay for their coffee every day. Hell, I’ll deliver it to their door!” She stops over Tony and inspects the burns covering his forearms and the piece of metal sticking out of his shoulder. “Why didn’t you have your suit on? Isn’t it supposed to protect you from this kind of damage?”

“This wasn’t in the field. This was in the lab.” Steve says, glaring daggers at Tony, who’s smilingly charmingly in Bailey’s direction.

“And you thought of me?” Bailey grins, getting out the lotion and hydrogen peroxide gel as well as some rather intimidation tweezers. “I’m so flattered.”

“Well, I mean we were in the SHIELD lab on the lido deck.”

“I wish we had a lido deck.”

“The tower has a lido _floor_.” Tony grins, waggling his eyebrows, “If you transfer to tower Medical, you could have your own lido floor.”

Bailey laughs and rolls her eyes like she usually does. And then they’re off. Steve kind of tunes out as Tony and Bailey talk at a fast pace. He lets the words roll over him and focuses on Bailey’s hands, because maybe next time he could treat Tony and they wouldn’t have to keep coming to Medical. Not that he doesn’t love seeing Bailey, but Tony hates Medical. He tunes back in to hear Tony laughing at Bailey.

“No I’m serious! I just can’t figure it out!” Bailey pouts as she pulls the piece of metal – Steve nearly fainted when he’d come running into the lab Tony and Bruce used at SHIELD to see Tony _poking_ at the metal in his shoulder that _shouldn’t have been there_ – slowly and carefully out of Tony’s skin. “I think the hairband fairy knows when the hairband thief strikes because they always overlap.”

“Why don’t you just cut your hair? You’d look cute with a bob I think.” Tony muses.

Bailey’s smile freezes. She goes tense. Steve cocks his head and watches her fingers tremble a little as they drop the piece of metal into a silver bowl. “All done!” She says. She smiles brightly and walks away without checking them out.

Bailey always checks them out.

“Did I say something wrong?” Tony asks Steve. Steve shrugs but frowns after Bailey.

“I think it was more her than you Tony. C’mon, I’ll get someone to sign you out.”

“Get anyone but Anderson. If he had his way, I’d fucking live here.”

The second time Tony comes in Bailey doesn’t mention her odd behavior and Tony invites her to the Fourth of July/Steve’s birthday party. Where she’s invited to another birthday. Then another. And soon she becomes a part of the family just like Jane and Darcy, though distinctly injury themed. They meet Dylan after eight months. He does look like a little Superman and he and Clint spend over an hour signing at each other and grinning.

“I don’t really like the look of that.” Bailey says to Natasha, watching them both giggle and sign something she knows means ‘mayhem’.

Natasha hums, but Tony speaks up before she can, “What’s your first name?”

Bailey blinks at him. “What?”

“Your first name. It’s not on any of your records. Did you have SHIELD delete you? Are you on the run? Is Dylan actually Fury’s love child?”

Bailey’s smile droops a little. “That was one of conditions of me joining SHIELD. I didn’t like my first name, so it’s just Bailey now.”

“So much that you had it eradicated from your files? That’s a little extreme.” Steve says, “What was it?”

Bailey looks a little panicked. “It wasn’t that it was bad or anything it was just… a sore spot.”

“You can tell us.” Bruce puts a hand on her shoulder but Bailey shrugs it off.

“No, I know I can it’s just…” She glances at the clock as she’s talking and says, “Wow, it’s pretty late! I’ll go get Dylan’s stuff, it’s about time for him to get home.”

And because the Avengers are full of well-adjusted people who recognize boundaries, they leave it at that.

Okay, no, but Steve tries (a little halfheartedly, some would say) to stop them.

It turns into a game. First to find out Bailey’s first name wins. They all try in various ways, stalking her online (Tony), actually stalking her (Natasha), talking to all of her friends and coworkers (Thor), or talking to Dylan (Clint). Bruce and Steve just kind of look on in resignation. But, while Tony can hack SHIELD, he can’t really get anything they’ve dumped from _every_ data location known to man. Seriously, they were assholes but they were thorough assholes.

They take a break during Christmas, but that’s only because Pepper said to.

Every time they see Bailey, she’s looking a little worse for wear. Her smile isn’t as prompt as it should be, and she has a hair band around her wrist sometimes. Bruce saw her nearly drink the Keurig coffee when he brought Tony in after New Year’s. When she doesn’t talk while patching a cut up Natasha, they become seriously worried.

“What’s wrong?” Surprisingly, it’s Natasha that asks.

“Nothing. Everything’s good. You’re set to go.” Bailey flashes a smile that doesn’t live for two seconds before it fades. Natasha stares at her for a whole minute, before Bailey speaks again, “I’m just not feeling well.” She avoids eye-contact and bustles off to attend to a Junior Agent that comes in with suspicious green fluid up to his elbows. Natasha narrows her eyes but leaves with her side stitched up as Bailey calls out, “Hey, Vasques, Code Orange, it’s your turn!”

“Damnit!”

}{

“Something’s wrong with Bailey?” Steve asks over cards that night.

Tony sips at his drink, “Like emotionally or physically?”

Natasha shrugs, scraping in her winnings. “She wouldn’t say and I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere if I’d kept asking.”

Tony’s on his phone, tapping away. Bruce speaks up, “Maybe it’s because we keep asking about her name? She said it was a sore spot.”

“Her brother’s fine. His last checkup for the hearing aids looks normal.” Tony says.

Steve gapes at Tony with that disapproving/disbelieving look in his eye. “Are you looking at her brother’s medical files?”

“What?” Tony throws up his hands, “They’re SI hearing aids, it’s not like they’re hard to get to.”

Clint deals, “Has anyone checked out her father?”

The table goes silent as they all pick up their cards, the only sound is Tony’s tapping and the cardboard shuffling.

“Healer Bailey speaks of her family often. I cannot imagine any of them doing her harm.” Thor considers his cards for a moment, “Except, perhaps, her father’s wife.”

“No, from what I can tell their relationship is more along the lines of mutual dislike, not one sided abuse.” Bruce says.

“She’s never mentioned her mother.” Natasha says, throwing in a couple of chips.

“She never knew her. Mother died during childbirth. Dad’s second wife.” Tony mutters, and then, “Aha!” Thor jumps and his glass nearly tumbles over. It’s only Steve’s reflexes that save it. “Found him. Cliff Bailey. Who wants to pay a visit to Daddy Dearest?”

“No, Tony.” Steve says, “That would be incredibly invasive.”

“Ok, Iced Americano, look, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. She’s SHIELD. If she’s not used to invasiveness by now, then she’s stupid. And Bailey’s not stupid.”

“Here, here.” Clint says, taking a swig of his own glass. He chokes, “Thor, what the hell did you give us?”

Thor frowns. Pouting like a puppy, “The finest Asgardian Mead. A gift to the Allfather from Kvasir, one of his best barrels.”

Natasha takes a sip of hers and hums, taking a larger one. “This one might even get you drunk Steve.”

Steve eyes his own glass and drinks. “Maybe.” He says.

Steve ends up passed out on the couch with his uniform half off. Clint is on the floor beneath him clad in a pink apron and Tony is lying over them both somehow. He’s still in his Iron Man pajama bottoms. Steve’s shield is holding more mead on the floor next to Clint’s head. Natasha, Bruce and Thor end up leaving them there.

When Clint wakes up, he wakes up with a jerk and rolls over to fall face first into the shield of mead.

}{

Daddy Dearest lives in the upper east side, on 92nd. It’s a fancy place with large business friendly apartments. The kind of place someone like Tony would live if he wasn’t Tony Stark and didn’t have a tower and three mansions.

Natasha and Clint go in first, to check out the lay of the land during an open house for the apartment across the hall. When they come out of the apartment (which is huge, by the way) a black haired woman is jogging in place as she opens Bailey’s father’s door.

_Must be the wife, back from a run,_ Tony says in their ear, _Loraine Bailey nee Overmann._

“Hi,” Natasha says, smiling warmly, “You live here?”

The woman turns around and stops jogging, flashing them a wide and white smile, “Yes! I’m here with my husband and son. Are you moving in?”

_Bailey was right; Dylan does get his looks from his mom,_ Tony says. He’s not wrong. Dylan’s mother is basically Wonder Woman without the outfit. She’s got black hair that shimmers with blue in her ponytail. Bright blue eyes spark with politeness and curiosity.

“Deciding to. We’ve got another viewing scheduled this afternoon at Millennium Tower.” Clint says tugging Natasha close by the waist.

Loraine Bailey waves her hand, “Oh please, the Easton is so much better. And about five hundred dollars cheaper. Not that that matters much when you’re talking ten thousand a month.” She laughs cheerily and says, “Oh, I’m sorry! Where are my manners? I’m Lori Bailey. I’d introduce you to my husband and son but they’re not home.”

Bailey’s father is at work and Dylan is at a sleepover until Sunday.

“I’m Natalie Costello, and this is my husband Louis. We’re moving from East Village. How old is your son?” Natasha asks politely, smiling and leaning into Clint.

“He’s about to turn nine in a few weeks. Do you have any children?”

“One, he’s getting to those awful teenage years.” Natasha smiles.

Clint laughs, “Yeah, Tony’s quite the handful.”

_Hey!_ Tony only gets out the one word before Steve shushes him.

“We’re actually thinking of having another one, which is why we’re moving.” Natasha says, “Do you ever consider having more?”

Lori scoffs, “Of course not. One is plenty for me. He’s wonderful but I don’t think I’d be able to keep my figure after another.” She and Natasha laugh together.

_She doesn’t even mention Bailey? Harsh_ , Tony whistles.

_Tony, chatter,_ Steve reminds him.

_Yeah, yeah._

Clint makes a show of checking his watch, “We should probably go, we don’t want to miss our open house at Millennium Tower.” He smiles at Lori, “It was nice meeting you, Lori. Maybe we’ll run into each other later today. We’re planning on making a decision tonight.”

“Well, then I hope I see you tonight. Bye now!” Lori steps into her apartment as they all wave at each other.

_I don’t like her,_ Tony says.

“You and me both,” Clint mutters, heading for the stairs with Natasha. “She’s a little too…”

“Stepford Wives.” Natasha finishes his sentence with no inflection, but Clint has known her long enough to see when she’s sneering. Even under the mask.

_Fake,_ Steve says. Tony hums an agreement. Both of them know all about putting on a show for an audience.

They wait a few hours before coming back, this time laughing and kissing and holding a bottle of champagne. They time it so that Mr. Cliff Bailey is just getting home as they’re opening up they’re new (they’re actually just breaking in) apartment.

Clint is at her neck with Natasha’s back against the wall next to the open door when Mr. Bailey rounds the corner, “Oh!” Natasha gasps, pushing Clint away, “I’m sorry,” She giggles, “We just signed the papers. We’re your new neighbors.” She holds out a hand for him to shake.

His eyes flick to Clint before he smiles and grasps her hand gently. “My wife told me about you. Natalie and Louis Costello right? I’m Cliff.” He holds out a hand to Clint as well, shaking it much more vigorously. “Glad you decided to move in, we need more families on the floor. Right now we’ve just got a single girl down the hall and a couple across from her.” Natasha’s face doesn’t show any reaction to the way he says ‘girl’.

Tony’s much more vocal, _So, we’re talking sexist?_

“We’re very excited to move everything in,” She says instead. “We heard you have a son?”

“Yes,” Cliff practically beams with pride. “Nine years old. Great kid.”

“Ever consider another?” Clint asks.

“Well, actually, I have another one. From a previous marriage.”

“Oh? We have a boy ourselves. I want another one, a girl I hope.” Natasha says, smiling the way Clint thinks a loving mother would.

“What’s your boy’s name?”

“Tony. Your wife never mentioned your son’s name…?” Clint trails off. Tony makes huffing noises over the comms. Steve shushes him again.

“Dylan,” Cliff smiles with unbridled pride again.

“And the other?”

Cliff’s expression droops a little. Not in the way a sad parent might, estranged from their kid, but in the way a disappointed guardian might, thinking of their wayward charge. “Ben,” He checks his watch, “I really should be going. Lori will be waiting with dinner. Have a nice night.” He nods to Clint and opens his own door.

_Ben?_ Tony asks.

“Ben,” Natasha muses. “Transsexual?”

_She’s not taking any hormones, according to her SHIELD Medical file. Her psych file though._ Tony whistles. _Wow. Why didn’t I check this earlier?_

_Tony!_ Steve says with no little outrage. _You can’t just go snooping through people’s psych files. That’s ridiculously invasive._

“SHIELD,” Clint and Natasha say together.

“What’s the psych file say?” Natasha asks, handing Clint the bottle of champagne. She closes the door to the apartment and locks it with the tools in her belt.

_Basically, lots of daddy issues. It’s mostly verbal and emotional abuse I think…_ Tony lets the sentence fall away and Clint knows they were all comparing the childhood they know Tony had to Bailey’s. To Ben’s. _And there’s some stuff here that leans more toward a prisoner of war psyche. And identity issues but only a little and its way overshadowed by the daddy issues thing._

“She’s originally female isn’t she?” Clint asks, leading the way back down the hall to the elevators.

_Yeah, like I said, no sex change and no record of any magical operations –_

“We do that now?” Clint asks.

“We’ve been doing that since Doctor Strange.” Natasha says, holding the door for him.

“Cool.”

_Stay on target._ Steve mutters through the comm. Clint guesses he’s looking over Bailey’s file now too. _I still think we should just talk to her._

_Because that worked so well the first time?_ Clint imagines Tony rolling his eyes.

}{

“I think JARVIS found something.” Tony says, before they could step off the elevator. They follow the sound of his voice into the common room. Steve, Thor and Bruce are sitting on the couch. Steve shrugs, so obviously they don’t know what Tony’s found yet. Tony’s standing by the window tapping furiously on his tablet, “I’ve had him searching for any kids with the last name Bailey born in the US the year Bailey says she was. Filtering out all the boys and any that died shortly after childbirth. Then I looked outside the US. Still no luck. So after that conversation with the lovely Mr. Bailey I started looking for boys too. Still no luck.”

“Ok this is just getting depressing.” Clint rubs his hand down his face with a tired sigh. He drops onto one of the armchairs.

Tony whirls to face the window, “Ok but look, that’s what tipped me off! I found Dylan just fine but there’s no trace of Bailey before high school. And even then there are no pictures. So obviously, she wasn’t born in a hospital.” On the large window screen photos start coming up. “I started looking at cultures and groups that don’t allow hospital care–”

“Groups.” Natasha says, from behind Clint. She barely lets her voice go above a whisper, but he can hear what she’s thinking. Groups mean cults. Cults mean fanatics. Like Hydra. Like AIM. Like the people from the Red Room. Fanatics mean pain.

“And I told JARVIS to start looking through any pictures of people in the groups. He found this.”

On the screen a black and white picture of a smiling woman holding a wailing baby, it’s arms reaching out of the blankets. The woman looks a hell of a lot like Bailey but a little older. Like how Bailey would appear if she actually looked her age.

Steve’s the one to break the silence, “Where’s this from?”

“The Congregation for the Light, Atlanta sect.” Tony says, face unreadable as he scans his tablet. He’s reading something that he hasn’t put up on the screen. His face is getting harder and harder with each line.

“What is it?” Bruce asks quietly.

Tony looks up at the photo again. “This is Kate Bailey. She died shortly after this picture was taken. The baby in her arms in Bentley Bailey. Registered as a boy under the groups records.”

“Bentley Bailey? Ben? Is that,” Bruce swallows, “Is that Bailey?”

“Pretty sure. There’s only a record of him and his father being banished shortly before his thirteenth birthday.” Tony stares at the picture until Steve clears his throat.

“Tony, what did you find?”

Anger appears in a flash and then disappears just as quickly, leaving Tony the suave snarky businessmen again, “The Congregation for the Light is extremely patriarchal. Basically they think they’re descendent from a master Aryan race,” He glances at Steve when the furniture creaks under his clenched fist. “And that humans once lived on the moon. The group believes a hodge podge of other shit put together by whatever leader is in power at the time, usually including reincarnation. There’s no written records of anything they believe. It’s all word of mouth. Even SHIELD’s records of them aren’t too good. Until children turn thirteen they aren’t considered human. They’re very reliant on caning as punishment for children and women. And they like to marry off their girls young. When Kate Bailey gave birth to her son, a man named Arnold Brown headed the Atlanta sect.”

“Arnold Brown. Why is that name familiar?” Steve frowns.

Natasha is gripping her knees while still looking totally at ease, “He was a high ranking official in Hydra.”

“Yep, and he still was when he took over the Atlanta Light,” Tony went on, scrolling through his tablet again, “Basically he told them that Kate Bailey – formerly Kate Reiter – was his daughter a thousand life time’s ago. Which basically made her high priestess. He said that she would give birth to the Ewig.”

“Evisch?” Clint deadpans, “You’re making that up.”

“No. Unfortunately, no.” Tony brings up another image, this one in color, of a white man with square black glasses and chestnut hair peppered at the temples with white and a trim moustache. He’s holding the hand of a small boy who can’t be older than three with brown hair the same color as Bruce’s, a pale face sprinkled liberally with freckles, and ordinary hazel eyes. The photo looks to have been taken no more than a few years after the first. “This is Arnold Brown and his Ewig. Bentley Bailey. Ewig means eternal or everlasting in German. SHIELD thinks that Brown was trying to find the cure for old age. Similar to the experiments they performed in the Red Room.”

“Tony,” Natasha says in a low voice, “When was that first picture taken?”

Tony doesn’t answer, “He decided that this Ewig needed ‘guardians through his lifetimes’ so he gave the operation to himself and the Ewig’s father.” Tony stares at the tablet in his hand for less than a second. The pause is barely noticeable. “The operation included injecting hormones from pregnant women. The file suggests that he killed the mother to make the father and himself immortal – or as close to it as he could.”

“ _Tony_ ,” Bruce says, dangerously calm, “ _When was that picture taken_?”

The only reason Tony answers, Clint suspects, is because Bruce is looking a little green. “1963.”

“Then Lady Bailey would be twice the age she pretends.” Thor muses.

“What about the second picture?” Steve asks.

“1970”

They absorb that for a second before Clint puts his elbows on his knees to be closer to the screen, “What happened to Brown?”

“Dead,” Tony shrugs, “Killed himself when SHIELD brought down the Atlanta base he was working from.”

“What was his final goal?” Steve asks in his Captain America voice, “Why make a child immortal if he could make himself immortal? Hydra’s not usually that generous.”

“Well, according to the captured Light member’s Brown said that the Ewig would be a boy who would lead them through the ages, never having to die between lives.” Tony pulls up silent videos of several people in SHIELD interrogation rooms. Two of them are mid to late thirties and the other three have to be older than sixty at least. “Which I’m guessing means he wanted a council of immortal assholes for Hydra. The kid would just be something to keep the members quiet. An immortal child is more trustworthy than a man claiming to be immortal. Plus, they can see it with their own eyes, how slow the kid ages. And hey! Why not raise a kid with Hydra ideals? He’d be a lot easier to manipulate than new members.”

“She.” Everyone looks at Natasha. She’s still staring at the picture of Brown and Bailey. “Even if everyone was told she was a boy. She’s a girl.”

Tony shrugs, “Anyway, in 1976, when Bentley – nicknamed Ben by the members – turned thirteen the father kidnapped him – her,” He says it quickly when Natasha turns to stare at him, “He kidnapped her. Brown told the group that he had stolen the Ewig. Mr. Bailey, at that time known as Christopher Bailey, went off the grid until 2002 when SHIELD finally tracked down Brown and his group.” He gestures at the videos still playing, “Which is how they found out about the runaway Bailey’s. They tracked them down to a town in Wisconsin a few years later because a Ben Bailey applied to University of Wisconsin.” Tony throws up another video.

It’s one of the examination rooms this time. The time stamp in the corner read 09/10/2005 23:57. A boy of maybe fifteen lies on the cot in the center of the screen, unconscious. He’s slender with short choppy dark hair the same color as Bruce’s. Freckles cover his face thickly and there’s wires decorating both arms. As they watch he jerks from sleep and blinks up at the camera. Hazel eyes blinking sluggishly.

“Turn it off Tony.” Steve orders. He says it again with more force when Tony doesn’t respond right away, “Turn it off now!”

When the video disappears they all just sit there. It’s a lot to process. The first one who speaks, surprisingly, is Thor.

“Why are we so glum my friends? Yes, Healer Bailey has been through a terrible ordeal, but she is content. She is happy here. Especially with her young brother. She was freed from this Congregation. What does it matter she will live longer than the rest of you? She will be happy.” Thor stands, “I am happy Lady Bailey went through what she did. I may never have known her if she aged like humans do.” He cocks his head, “Maybe I will bring her to Asgard. Let her be amongst other immortals. I wonder if Loki would like to meet her…” He keeps talking as he wanders into the kitchen. The rest of them stare after him.

Tony claps his hands, “Well. Thor’s right. It’s all over now. We’ve effectively stuck our noses into her business and sniffed out the truth. Well done gang, let’s have dinner. JARVIS!”

And suddenly it’s all okay.

Bailey will continue to be Bailey. She went through something possibly just as horrible as what any of them have experienced. Something no person should have to do through. They don't know what exactly happened during her time with the Light and they might never know. What they do know is that it’s done now. She's safe. She’s theirs.

And they’re determined to keep her that way.

**Author's Note:**

> The title for this came - as I'm sure some of you have guessed - from Immortals, by Fall Out Boy. 
> 
> I may or may not be doing more little one-shots in this universe. It depends on the kind of feed back I get, ya know? So remember!  
> If you don't like it; move on.  
> If you do; leave a kudos.  
> If you want another one or have a suggestion, concern, question, or comment; Leave a comment!
> 
> may you have fluff smut and angst in your future!


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